Jane Cooper Books

This 1977 staple-bound 36-page softcover book (8.5" x 6") contains synopses of several scholarly lectures concerning the earliest development of American crafts and arts with recommended readings listed for each subject. It was complied in by the Twenty-Ninth Annual Williamsburg (VA) Antiques Forum. Contributing lecturers include scholars, and curators from major universities and very prestigious museums throughout the nation. Subjects include "Development of American Porcelain 1775-1850", "The Assent of American Classical Silver", "Democracy's first Symbols in Architecture", "Ceramics in America, 1770-1830" and much more. It is a very fine booklet for historical American arts and crafts collectors or scholars.

As with other Wuthering Heights editions, I will not delve into the depths of this strangest and strongest of novels, with its haunting poetical intensity, its everyday realism, its display of physical and psychical violence, its metaphysical contents and its eerie beautiful otherness. As the noted critic C. A. Swinburne put it in 1883:
"It may be true that not many will ever take it to their hearts: it is certain that those who do like it will like nothing very much better in the whole world of poetry or prose".
By the way, whatever the edition you end up with (or none), don't forget to have
a try with Emily Bronté poems, or a sensible selection from them. I realize that this review is by far too long: so, if you are in a hurry, I think that you can skip safely to the last paragraph ("SO WHAT?") for practical recommendations.

The real issue that we face now is: how much does THIS PARTICULAR EDITION of Emily Brontë's novel measure up to its intended goal? How does it compare with other editions currently available?
Beginning with the bottom line, THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST "STUDY" EDITIONS EVER, together with Beth Newman's one for Broadview Press and Dunn's one for Norton Critical (4th edition). By a "study" edition (in roughly the same sense as a "study" Bible), I mean one that is richly annotated, with an interesting Introduction and a variety of context-oriented documents, such as critical reviews or essays, biographical or chronological items, a selection of poems or other writings... Such an edition must be evaluated firstly by his handling (more or less scholarly or careful) of the TEXT(s) involved, then by the choice of supplementary materials (whether interesting or not, balanced or else), in third place by the quality and accuracy of the Introduction and notes, ending with very important issues of design (user-friendly, beautiful) and material production (durability, paper and print quality, binding).

IN SUMMARY, lest I get too long and formal, this is a well cared for, accurate and reliable 1847-type text, springing out of the University of Virginia electronic texts, but tightly controlled by the 1976 Clarendon Edition one (by Hilda Marsden and Ian Jack), and silently adapted as punctuation is concerned (resulting in a friendly version, which the scholarly reconstructed punctuation of Clarendon is not).
THE INTRODUCTION is short (11 pp) and well planned so that it opens ways for understanding, but can be read before the novel without spoiling anything.
It sounds a bit like run-of-the-mill material, but this is a deceiving image
(Alison Booth's command of the material is always there).
THE ANNOTATION IS VERY GOOD and extensive enough, with full and right glosses of the dialect tirades, and accurate, to-the-point information on biblical or literary references, or contextual ways and means.
In that most elusive of references, the one about Milo (of Croton) in Chapter IX, however, Alison Booth edition slips a little, like many other good ones (with Clarendon doing a little better, the ones getting the story right if not in full are Barnes&Noble, Wordsworth Classics, Penguin/Nestor, Broadview/Newman, Oneworld Classics and the excellent but ill-fated Routledge edition by Heather Glen). According to the Geography of Strabo, Book XII, which is the only source for this story, Milo in his old age tried to tear apart in two a tree half split and with a wedge to retain it open. He then exerted all his force with his hands, opening the gap wide enough for the wedge to drop off; the tree closed (it requires an ever increasing force to continue opening the trunk -this is Hooke's Law in physics-) and trapped the hands of Milo, who was then devoured by wolves.
It is regarding this story that we read in the novel:"Who is to separate us, pray? They'll meet the fate of Milo!" (who also tried unwisely and deadly to SEPARATE something). Saying in a note, as Booth does, "In the classical fable, Milo, an athlete, tried to pull a tree up by the roots" is a little misleading (not only do we lose the "separation factor", but also accuracy. Milo is neither a fable nor a myth, but a real human being with a place both in time and on earth, mentioned with consistent witness by two of the best historians of the time, other than Strabo. As to the stories connected to him, nothing is known for sure when we go into the details, and so the label "legend" is most appropriate).

The CONTEXTUAL MATERIALS are well chosen and presented. The only problem, and I think THE GREATEST PROBLEM with this otherwise excellent edition, is that there are 40+ items of this material and only 130 pages to fit them in: it looks hopelessly like a motley medley of maddening fragments, with, say, ONLY FIVE OF EMILY'S POEMS, which is both a pity and a blunder. There are interesting curios as the "Table of the average yearly wages paid to domestics... according to their rank in a household".
More important are the pages devoted to Yorkshire dialect (too scarce) and ballads (very good). There is also a fair amount of space (11 pages) allotted to "cultural dissemination", that is, works of art (songs, theatrical or musical adaptations as well as TV or movie ones, sequels...) deriving from or related with the novel.
The data included are very good and complete except for the chapter on translations in which, just as an example, only two translations into Spanish are listed, and only one in current use although it is barely acceptable: there are by now no less than TEN Spanish translations easily available; some are very good, some are rightly annotated, none is both things together and none is based on the 1847 text (but on the 1850 one).

MATERIAL PRODUCTION is... fair enough, as far as I can tell without ripping apart my copy. A not-too-bad paperback, perhaps even signature-sewn but without flaps (with cover corners and even front-edge vulnerable). Paper quality looks good (time will tell) and printing quality is excellent. Design is clear and user-friendly
(I will not comment on the typeface they use for big headlines, perhaps somebody will love it).

SO WHAT?
If an accurate and reliable text and a rich annotation are a must,
then stick to this Longman Cultural Edition (by Alison Booth).
If you can make do with a generally reliable text with a few errors, some idiosyncratic readings and inconsistencies and, besides, you don't mind a scanty annotation (but with full dialectal glosses), and you will appreciate the finest choice ever of contextual materials (but with only EIGHT OF EMILY's POEMS) as well as a MOST INTERESTING and thought-provoking INTRODUCTION (29pp), then choose the Broadview Press edition by Beth Newman (be sure not to pick their earlier one by Christopher Heywood!).
If, on the other side, you may accept a generally reliable text and a very scanty annotation (but with full dialectal glosses), and you would appreciate the best presentation ever of early reviews and similar materials (Charlotte's prefaces for 1850, and some letters by Charlotte) and you would enjoy a really good and wide enough selection of EIGHTEEN EMILY's POEMS, then don't miss the elegant and no-nonsense Fourth Edition of Norton Critical (by R.J. Dunn, with almost the same text, for good and worse, of the late and mourned William M. Sale 1963 1st edition).

Have a haunting reading!

James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) is sometimes called the "American Scott". Like Sir Walter Scott who romanticized the Scottish past, Cooper focused readers attentions to the the American frontier. His most famous works are the Leatherstocking tales featuring Natty Bumpo. The novels in the series include: The Deerslayer; "The Pathfinder"; "The Last of the Mohicans"; "The Pioneers" and "The Prarie." The most famous of these novels is "The Last of the Mohicans" set during the French and Indian War in North America. Natty Bumpo the hero of the tale is said to be 40 years old; he is an experienced woodsman knowledgable in fieldcraft; Indian fighting and how to survive in a brutal frontier setting in upstate New York.
The novel includes exciting fights with Indians; escapes from Indian captivity; word paintings of nature; a love story and a tale lamenting the passing of the last of the Mohicans.
The characters are:
Natty Bumpo-the intrepid scout for the British who rescues damsels in distress while escaping Indian capture. He is the hero of the novel and the Leatherstocking series.
Duncan Heyward-A brave but inexperienced British major who is love with the inspidly portrayed Alice Murno. Alice is a stick figure with no depth or character development.
Cora Munro is the sister of Alice. Both of these siblings are the daughters of British soldier Munro who is the commander at Fort William H enry. The fort is captured by the French and their Indian allies. Alice and Cora are captured and taken to an Indian village.
Chingachgook and his son Uncas. Good friends of Hawk-eye (a nickname for Natty Bumpo). Uncas is the last of the Mohicans. He is love with the dark skinned Cora.
Mauga. The evil Indian who is the major foe of the English and the friends of Hawkeye.
The novel is written in an old fashioned literary style which lends itself to slow reading for moderns. The language does not, however, get in the way of the nonstop action. The book is one of the first novels written by an American author assisting at the birth of our literary heritage. Cooper's views on Indians is not politically correct. It is worth your time and effort to become acquainted with this literary milestone.

I liked the book, Last of the Mohicans. I notice that many reviewers who gave it one or two stars are kids who had to read the book for an advanced English class or who saw the movie and decided to read the book. It is NOT an easy read (which is probably why many kids did not like the book), but I thought it was worth the effort. It was a little difficult keeping the characters straight at first because Cooper has several names for the key characters and switches between them freely.

My favorite character was actually one that I would guess is an outlier - David Gamut. His manhood is often insulted by Hawkeye, (Hawkeye calls David's pitch pipe his "tooting weapon" and he pokes fun of his useless profession of psalmody) yet David's bravery is no less than the heroes of the tale. Sure he can't shoot a gun (it would be against his principles anyway), but he sticks with the sisters when they are kidnapped by Magua and is able to come and go freely among the Indians as he is viewed by them as not having all of his mental faculties. He saves Uncas' life by secretly switching places with him and tells Hawkeye not to avenge his death should he die for the ruse. His moral character is higher, I believe, than the vengeful Indians and Hawkeye. While Hawkeye tolerates or even disdains David at the beginning of the book, I think he grows to like and even admire David by the end.

The plot was interesting to me and sure some of the language is convoluted and Cooper's vocabulary is admittedly far superior to mine. However, if you keep a dictionary nearby, you'll learn several new words and enjoy an exciting tale.

"The Last of the Mohicans" is a novel for the ages and its hero Hawkeye is a man who teaches life lessons with each page you turn. Many people believe that this novel has outlived its worthiness but once turn of the pages will reveal to the reader a world that is both savage and young, characters that are both civilized and savage, and a story that harkens back to the beginnings of the new world. Cooper's language is hard to swallow sometimes, and the movie is easier to watch, but the reader who settles into the pages of Hawkeye's life and world is rewarded with lessons about friendship, love, survival and the rite of passage that all people go through. It is a definite must read for both English and History classes as it explores the beginnings of this great country in which we live.

Since there are already over 100 reviews of this book and probably thousands have been written over the years, I'll do this one without benefit of book in hand, from memory and without a lot of details. It took me many years to get over the antiquated language barrier and to finally read the book. The classics are always harder to read than contemporary fiction, but sometimes it's worth the effort.

What tipped the scales for me and piqued my curiosity was watching the recent movie with Daniel Day-Lewis, Madeleine Stowe, Russell Means, and Eric Schweig, and realizing that this was a good story. Also, I'm very familiar with the setting in upstate NY: Lake George, Balston Spa, Glenns Falls, Scroon Lake, and surrounding area--at least as it is now, and it was fun imagining what it would have been like in those days, when the land was virgin, settlers could lose their scalps if they weren't careful, and the France contested with Britain for supremacy of the land.

The book wasn't a romance--at least not in the modern sense of the word--with love scenes and the like. But it was a romance in the old sense in that the three main characters; Hawk-eye, and the two Mohicans, were larger than life heroes; in the moral, physical, and spiritual meanings of the term. The elder sister Cora was also a well developed, strong willed and heroic character, which surprised me a little considering the age in which the book was written.

For me the most interesting character of the novel was Chingachgook's son, Uncas, who was the "last of the Mohicans," a noble race of American Indians, which formerly occupied the lands by the "salt lake," (i.e., the Atlantic Ocean), and were dispossessed and robbed of their lands and heritage by the original Dutch settlers and others. Uncas was a tracker extraordinaire, even better than the indomitable Hawk-eye in this respect. But he was young, inexperienced, and impetuous, which was eventually his undoing when he came up against the evil, and formidable Magua. But before he died, he was recognized as a king or great chief of his people, an heir apparent. So decreed the venerable Tamenund, a 100 year old patriarch and judge of the Delaware peoples, a related tribe to the Mohicans. This episode would have been difficult to write into an action movie, but it would have been great if it had been.

Another interesting character completely eliminated from both the 1934 and 1992 movies was David Gamut, a preacher psalmist, whose moral presence and as a comic relief, was an integral part of the novel.

All in all, this is still a book worth reading, if only to get a glimse of the way things were then and might be again.

it is a very good book but the english that it is written in is different from the way we speak today. I enjoy the book and will recommend it to everyone looking for something that is good to read and to all children for their classes that require reading books.

I lost faith in Cooper's book before I even got to 1933. If you want the German Army's self-portrait, look here & in Barnett's "Hitler's Generals." Otherwise, read elsewhere.

An example from memory: discussing WW1, Cooper trots out as if they were true the platitudes about the army's remaining steadfastly non-political. This works if you forget that Ludendorff was *running the country* in 1917-18, having arrogated dictatorial powers to himself, cowed the Kaiser, run off Bethmann-Hollweg, etc., etc.

Needless to say, the "non-political" bit is nonsense, in WW1, during Weimar, and after Hitler's accession.

I am relativly late in reviewing this book in that many have reviewed it before me. The previous reviews run from Wonderful to Awful. I am in the wonderful camp. I found it extremely illumimating although, as others have pointed out there are flaws. I definitely found out things I did not know before and I am somewhat of a WWII buff.

Mr Cooper probably did rely heavily on memoirs but they can be useful to the historian as well as to the writer of those memoirs.

For example, discussions of particular battles may have some use but they may sugarcoat discussions about things for which they could be punished, such as the Wehrmacht's participation in the extermination of the jews. Mr Cooper doesn't even mention that. I can understand his not covering the holocaust, but the Wehrmacht had a definite role in rounding up Jews and at times, participating in their extermination.

Also, my impression is that the book wasn't about the army so much as it was about its Generals and their relations with Hitler. I saw very little on the German soldier except for broad generalities. That said, his description of what the Russian weather did to the german soldiers when they were outside Moscow in the winter of 1941 was graphic.

Usually in a book or manual, order of battle information is presented in a table. Mr Cooper put this information into prose and sometimes it got a little tedious wading through all that information.

On the positive side, it is a very detailed examination of how the Wehrmacht fared during the war. Their trials and tribulations as well as their successes. And it does, generally, read well.

It also filled in many gaps in my knowledge. Others may know these things. I didn't. For example, The Germans invaded Russia on June 22, 1941. By July they were already having second thoughts about the wisdom of that decision and in August, he quotes one General as saying they have greatly underestimated their Soviet enemy.

It is well known that it was Hitler who ordered "no retreat" at Stalingrad but Mr. Cooper documents just how often Hitler interfered with his Generals with the "no retreat" order. In fact, you get the impression that it was Hitler's amateurish meddling with strategy and tactics that was the primary cause of the Germans losing the war. I believe it.

Overall, I found this book to be both interesting and readable and that puts me in the "wonderful" column. I would recommend that anyone interested in WWII read it. It does have some flaws but so does virtually every book one would read.

I found this to be a great book, it covers everything someone intrested in the German army of WW2 would want to know. I personally found the chapters dealing with the pre-war German army to be very illuminating. I havent found another book that covers the birth of the WW2 Wermhact in such detail. The absolute weakness and unreadiness of the German army is coverd very well, and it will suprise those who have the usal misconceptions about the mighty German war machine.

My only gripe is that I agree with other posters who say that the book relied to much on senior German officers memoirs who sought to project thier own failures on to Hitler. But for those who say this book dosen't cover the holocaust I say there are tons of other books that do that. Don't critisize this book because it dosen't cover something outside of it's own subject. And people who are mad that the book occasionely complaments the German soldier in the field aren't worth even listening to because their own bias is to much to be objective.

Mr. Cooper relies too much on the memoirs of German generals, which are not a reliable source. Naturally, they try to find a scapegoat for their failures. After the War Hitler became an easy target. Besides, as a professional historian, Mr. Cooper should have realized that defeated generals ALWAYS blame the defeat on the "overwhelming" material and numerical superiority of the enemy. I am yet to hear of a general who would blame a defeat on his poor skills. Germans make no exception. They would see hundreds of enemy tanks when only a few dozen were actually present; they would see millions of Soviet infantrymen across the battlefield when the Red Army was barely able to put 300,000 - 400,000 men. It should have been no secret for Cooper that by 1942 The Third Reich (including all the occupied areas in Europe and its satellite states) was one of the most populous states in the World. A very large percentage of its population was composed of Germans and other so called "super humans" or whatever they thought they were. Not to mention the vast industrial and natural resources available in occupied Europe. Soviet Union, on the other hand had lost 40% of its densely populated territories and millions of soldiers were either killed or captured. The numerical superiority of the Red Army during the War is a myth that persists to this day in popular history.
Mr. Cooper also has a very narrow idea of how armored warfare should have been waged. His idea boils down to "tank attacks with unprotected flanks". Any attempt to protect the flanks is considered a blasphemy! Is there any modern army that advocates such a tactic? I doubt. Cooper is no expert on strategy and tactics.
Another thing that strikes me is the author's sympathy with the Germans. German soldiers are constantly described as "fighting bravely, heroically, and with great skil". The Soviets are just "the enemy". I always thought that the Nazi inspired German soldier was the villain not the Siberian peasant who fought for the life of his children.

There are several excellent points made in the other reviews which I won't rehash here, but I'll attempt to present another view of the book.

The book reads easily, and Cooper has a certain elegance to his language. He does not get bogged down in technical jargon that would not be accessible to the non-expert. He has done considerable research utilizing primary sources. His major themes are the German officer corps and its principles of Duty, Honor, Country, and how those principles affected the Wehrmacht's dealings with Hitler and its strategic approach to the subsequent war. A secondary theme is the strategic course of the Wehrmacht and the influence of the Generals and Hitler on that course. An interesting thesis in which he makes eloquent arguments but one that to some reveals a neglect of strategic factors outside of Germany. As Cooper himself states, however, in his introduction, "I deal solely with the themes outlined above," hence presenting a narrow field of view.

Cooper believes that the Officer Corps' abrogation of responsibility and acceptance of Hitler's orders led to Germany losing the war. The book relies heavily on post war memoirs and collections, notably those of Kesselring, von Manstein, Guderian, and Keitel, and their hindsight opinions affect Cooper's conclusions. This is why other reveiewers have mentioned a "pro-german" bias. Cooper makes no deliberate attempt to discuss in detail the influence and effectiveness of Allied armies, mainly because he intended to stay focused on the one topic.

For the everyman, its an interesting look at the German Army during the pre-war years, the internal politics of its Officer Corps and General Staff, and how those interactions affected the course of the war. For the historian or gifted amatuer it lacks impact. It would be well suited as a general read, but it would behoove the reader to contrast this book with one that focuses on the Soviet side of the Front and then make one's own assessment.

I am an engineering student, and this book was the required text for my University Physics course. My teacher sucked big time, and I couldn't grasp ANYTHING from lectures alone. I thought by concentrating on the textbook alone, I could get the material. One thing I can tell you is that if you read the book with utmost concentration, you can understand the material to a moderate level. HOWEVER, this process takes up much of your time, because the book is filled with derivations of several formulae that you don't really need to know, and the syntax can confuse you often. If Physics is your true passion and you WANT to learn EVERYTHING about it (and have enough free time to read through this book without ever feeling a little bored), then this book will be useful for you. Otherwise, you're better off with a study guide and also, another physics text for reference.

This text book is not the best physics book I've ever used, but if you're good at calculus and you're a natural you shouldn't have too much trouble.

Problems with the book:

1.) Almost every solution given in the back of the book or the solutions manual is entirely wrong. So you will just have to trust that you worked it out correctly or take it to someone who knows what they are doing and ask them to verify concepts that you are having trouble with or that you don't think you understand to the full capacity.
2.) The definitions given are vague and often inconsistent, so you will have to do most of the thinking yourself and derive the definitions from common sense.


Pro's of the book:
1.) If you read the introduction and go through the in-chapter examples concentrating very hard, you should come out with a pretty good understanding of the material and be able to work out most of the problems in the back.
2.) If you go to this website: http://wps.prenhall.com/esm_fishbane_physics_3
It gives you a summary for each chapter, all of the important formulas for that chapter, and it gives you "practice problems" which are incredibly helpful.

Regardless of what the engineering undergrads say, this textbook is great. Previously an engineering undergrad myself - turned physics, this is by far the best physics textbook i've come in contact with. Higher physics textbooks are usually very dry, but this book makes entry level physics fun to learn. The reason all of the engineering undergrads have a problem with this book is because they are used to plugging numbers into equations. If you seek to get an actual UNDERSTANDING of the concepts and wish to brush up on your calculus, this is an excellent book for you. If you don't, I wouldn't recommend this or any other physics textbook.

I took calculus I, and taking calculus II at the same time with my physics course. As a physics fan, I am pretty much disatisfied with this book. If you have already known some basic concepts in physics, you may find that this book provides more confusion than understanding. If you don't know anything about physics, you should not use this book as a base for your knowledge in physics. The author explains things as if he assumes that you know what is going on in his mind!

I have more to say about the problem exercises in this book. There are a couple of typos that if you have to use this book as your textbook for physics course, you may find out. The problems in the book are divided into 3 levels according to their difficulties: level I, II, and III. Sometimes, if don't want to say many times, I have no significant difficulties in solving a level III problem, but have a painful experience in solving level II problems. Level I is usually easy, but can be tricky. A major difficulty in solving problems in this book, even though you understand the physics concepts, is that you don't know what the problems are asking for. It is because the questions are often very ambiguous. You can check out some examples: problem 11 page 54 (note that the value 39.25 is a typo), 15 page 113, 24(c) page 204. These are just a few examples to give you a sense. If you are "lucky" enough to have this book as your textbook, and have to solve the problems in there for your homework, you will experience more!

Physics is no easy subject, especially when every aspect is supposed to be understood. Even high school physics is no laughing matter, and so I can understand the frustration some of the people voice on this book. If you want a book that will allow you to plug in specifically easy problems into the specific couple of equations you learned in the chapter, this book is not for you. However, if you desire a book that will give you all the tools and understanding to solve almost any general problem that is thrown at you, you better not wait another second to buy this book.

This book harnesses Calculus to provide more powerful equations. While the derivations of equations look frighteningly daunting, if you read them carefully and do not move on until you understand how the authors got to it, your ability to ad-lib on other problems will be tremendously increased. I must admit, however, that the sample problems do not always prepare you adequately for the end of the chapter problems. The level one problems are too easy. The level two problems are adequate but can usually be solved by searching through the chapter and sticking in the number into an equation found there. And the level three problems are nearlly impossible, but, if solved, give you a tremendous sense of accomplishment.

If you are ready to be challenged and wish to learn true physics, you have nothing to be afraid of to buy this book.